Towing device for ships.



R. KOSS.

TOWING DEVICE FOR SHIPS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 4, 1913.

.LO75,1 1 1. Patented 001;. 7, 1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Wig/6% COLUMBIA PLANOGRAI H CD.,WASHINUTON, D. c.

R. KOSS.

TOWING DEVICE FOR SHIPS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 4, 1913.

Patented 0011731913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

LQYEJEL R. KOSS.

TOWING DEVICE FOR SHIPS;

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 4, 1913.

Patented Oct. 7, 1913.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT @FFEOE.

Rica-Ann Koss, or nnnsrna, wEs'rPHALfA, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO SIEMENS- sonnciznar WERKE, G. M. B. H., or BERLIN, GERMANY, A CORPORATION or GERMANY.

orain.

Application filed February 4, 1913.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, RICHARD Koss, a citizen of the German Empire, and residing at Munster, WVestphalia, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Towing Devices for Ships, of which the following is a true description.

This invention relates to a system for towing ships in which the tug-boat by means of driven friction rollers moves along a flexible guide, such as a rail cable or rope mounted upon the water bed to permit upward motion during passage of the tugboat.

VVhen passing through curved parts of the river or canal or in case of a strong side wind certain forces will act upon the rail of such a system, said forces being exerted by the tug-boat acting in such a way upon the rail that the latter will have the tendency to move to the side. This condition is especially found in the case of artificial water ways, as these have generally a relatively small width and permit only small traveling speeds, so that it is often impossible to properly provide the counteracting lateral forces by the steering of the tug-boat.

In order to prevent a lateral displacement of the rail, it may be anchored in various ways to the bottom of the canal or river, for instance by means of anchor-rods which are fastened in a flexible manner upon the ground and in a direction which is perpendicular to the direction of travel; these rods are placed at proper distances from each other and must be so arranged that they do not prevent the rail from being lifted at the moment the tug-boat passes upon the rail. The lateral deflections of the rail whicht'ake place between two such anchoring points, for a given transverse force, are the greater, the greater the distance is Theoretic'ally, therefore, the lateral deflections of between the anchoring points.

the rail could be reduced as desired, by simply increasing the number of anchoring points, in practice, however, certain limits are found, beyond which for commercial reasons it will be impossible to increase the number of anchoring points. Besides these forces which act so-to-say one-sided upon the rail, there may also exist forces which act in a couple due to an incidentalturning ofthe tug-boat. For this kind of lateral deflections or distortions the" mode of an- Specification of Letters Patent.

TOWING DEVICE non SHIPS.

Patented Oct. 7,1913.

Serial No. 746,226.

chorage and the number of anchoring points is unessential, since the strain exerted by such forces upon the rail apparently in no way affects the points of anchorage in lateral direction, but would possibly result in an S-shaped bend of the rail at points which are relatively near to each other.

My invention has for its purpose to overcome these difficulties. According to my invention the lateral deflections or distortions of all kinds will be kept within sufiiciently small limits by employing means which impart to the towing rail a permanent tension in longitudinal direction, this tension being independent of any strain which is imposed upon the rail by the tug-boat acting thereupon. The greater these stretching means, the smaller will therefore be the efi'ect of transverse forces acting upon the rail and therewith its lateral deflection or distortion and by properly dimensioning the force of this stretching means the lateral deflections or distortions of the rail may obviously be reduced to a minimum.

The effect of the stretching means upon the rail, cable or rope may be compared. with the effect which is caused by imparting a tension to or exerting a stretching force upon a string of a musical instrument; thus a stretched rail, cable or rope in a tugging system will be but slightly deflected, the same as a string of a musical instrument when under a high tension. It is therefore also easy to see, that assuming a deflection which is practically permissible, the number of anchoring points may esentially be reduced in case the above stretching means for the rail, cable or rope are employed in a tugging system.

If a rail be employed as guiding means the choice of the cross-section can not be made arbitrarily but must be such that the rail possesses a rigidity which as far as possible is the same in all directions of bending. A flat strap or rail for instance would not be suited for this purpose as it does not possess the same rigidity for an edgewise or flat bending. For instance, upon being lifted during passage of the tug-boat such a rail when under a bending strain in edgewise direction would by action of the stretch ing means'readily turn into a bent position which offers less resistance to the bending force, that is to say, it would bend flat and eventually undergo a permanent distorrail with the tension connection; Fig. 3 is a l longitudinal elevation of the ra1l and ten sion connection shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional elevation showing the.

means for imparting tension longitudinally of the rail; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the same; Figs. 6 and 7 are plan views of arrangements for imparting longitudinal tension to the rails at curves; and Figs. 8 and 9 are detail views of rail joints according to my invention.

A tug rail 0 whose cross-section accomplishes the desired result, and which permits the traveling of a tug-boat by driving rollers is represented as an example in sec tion in Fig. 1. Also the cross-section of the inner piece (Z of the rail, serving as fastening member for the stretching mechanism which imparts tension to the guiding rail will accomplish the desired result. For the connections of the joints between adjoining rails and for the fixing pieces for the anchoring rods a form of cross-section corresponding to that of the piece d is also em advantageously filled with a material which 1 may follow the deflections of the rail without falling out of the'rail viz: which is little sensitive against tension and pressure, for f instance cement, asphalt, concrete, resin, f This filling will obviate the danger that during the deflection of the I putty or the like.

rail the two shanks of the profile will approach each other. This filling furthermore has the purpose to prevent a filling of the hollow space of the rail through earth or mud which may cause a clogging of the mechanism of the driving rollers and therewith eventually be a source of trouble.

Figs. 2 to 5 show an example ofa construction, by which the above permanent longitudinal stretching of the rail may be obtained; Fig. 2 shows a cross-section mn of the rail 0 which is shown in a side-view in Fig. 3; the inner piece (1 which serves for fixing the chain f for exerting the tension upon the rail, is provided with a bolt 0 for attaching said chain. Fig. 4 shows a section through a river or canal, a guiding rail 0 and a stretching means; a top view of this device is given in Fig. 5, the chain f, as in Figs. 2 and 3, is fastened upon the rail 0 by the bolt 6 and leads over the rollers g and 7t provided upon the ground to the roller 2' at the bank of the river or canal and from there to the weight is. The roller 9, as shown in the drawing is furthermore pivoted to permit automatically the proper adjustment of the direction of the chain, at the moment when the rail is lifted by the passing tug-boat. The weight 76 moves in a well, in order to permit the chain to slide over the rollers g, h, and i and to keep the chain always in a condition of strain. In this arrangement the imparting of the tension or stretch to the rail is therefore independent of the height of the rail in the water. Instead of a chain, of course, any other device may be used, also the weight is may well be replaced by devices such as springs, blocks and pulleys and the like. To provide the source of the stretching forces on the bank of the river or canal has the advantage that this device may easily be controlled or adjusted as desired.

As regards the physical action of the stretching device during the travel of the tug-boat it may be remarked that in case of a rail which is anchored by transverse rods hinged at the rail and the ground (see for instance Figs. 67) the anchoring rods will follow every upward motion of the rail no matter whether a tension is imparted to the rail or not, and this without exerting any resistance against this motion. Every motion, however, which is in transverse direction to the rail, will be prevented at the anchoring points by the rods, and at the verse rods 9 of the kind above described is shown in Fig. 6 as being mounted in a river or canal of the shape of an S. In this case the apparatus for imparting the tension to the rail is advantageously arranged between two points of anchorage; Fig. 6 shows a stretching means corresponding to that of Figs. 4 and 5 which is applied to the rail between the points of anchorage C and E. The designations are the same as in Figs. 4 and 5.

In curves of the river or canal the anchoring rods for the rail and its stretching mechanism are under a permanent compressive or tensile strain, since in stretching the rail in this case there are component forces acting at the points of anchorage, said component forces of stretching being directed toward the center of the curvature. At the points A, B and G in Fig. 6 by reason of the stretching there will be compressing forces, which are directed from the rail toward the points of anchorage on the grounds, these forces being compensated by the transverse rods, as indicated by the arrows. At the points E, F, G, H, however, the anchoring rods are strained in opposite sense, viz. they are under a tensile strain.

In small curves, as shown in Fig. 7 the rail, in order to avoid sharp bending and having too many points of anchorage, is provided with horizontal joints. The stretching apparatus now is preferably so arranged. that the stretching forces are applied at a point of the rail which is located at the straight part about half way between two joints. The connection between two succeeding straight parts of rails is thus made by curved rail-members A-C and E-G which resist the bending forces, so that sharp bends of the rail at the points of anchorage B and F will be avoided. In Fig. 7 such joints are shown at A, C, E and G; D is the point of application for the rope or chain 1 of the stretching mechanism, the same designations being used as in Figs. 4 and 5. The chain f in this case leads over the rollers g, it and i to the weight 70 which is provided at the bank of the river or canal, the same as in Figs. 4 and 5.

Figs. 8 and 9 show a form of a horizontal joint for the rail, the joint being shown in a longitudinal section and in a top view respectively; 0 is the rail, 1", 7' are hinge members which are firmly connected with the ends of the rail, through which the bolt 8 passes.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination with a flexible rail mounted upon the water bed; of means attached to said rail for imparting permanent longitudinal tension thereto.

2. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination with a flexible rail articulated for horizontal fiexure and mounted upon the water bed; of means attached to said rail for imparting permanent longitudinal tension thereto.

8. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination with a flexible rail mounted upon the water bed, of means for permanently imparting a longitudinal tension to said rail, said rail having a cross-section resulting in approximately even rigidity in all directions.

4. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination of a flexible rail for the tug-boat, with means for permanently imparting a longitudinal ten sion to said rail and yielding joints for said rail, said rail having a cross-section resulting in approximately even rigidity in all directions.

5. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination of an in verted U-shaped flexible rail for the tug boat, with means for permanently imparting a longitudinal tension to aid rail and a filling for the open parts of the rail, said filling consisting of a material which resists tension and pressure.

6. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination of an inverted U-shaped flexible rail for the tugboat with means for permanently imparting a longitudinal tension to said rail, joints for said rail, said joints permitting motion of said rail in horizontal direction, a filling for the open parts of the rail, said filling consisting of a material which resists tension and pressure.

7. In a ship towing device of the character described, the combination of a flexible rail for the tug-boat, with means for permanently imparting a longitudinal tension to said rail, said rail open underneath and being of a cross-section resulting in an approximately even rigidity in all directions, a filling for the open parts of the rail, said filling consisting of a material which is little sensitive against tension and pressure.

8. In a ship towing device of the character described,the combination of a flexible rail for the tug-boat, with means for permanently imparting a longitudinal tension to said rail, said rail open underneath and being of a cross-section resulting in an approximately even rigidity in all directions, yielding joints for said rail, and a filling for the open parts of the rail, said filling consisting of a material, which is little sensitive to tension and pressure.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

RICHARD KOSS. a s.]

Witnesses ALBERT NUFER, JULIUs FESTNER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington,- D. G. 

